Ashes drama as Jonny Bairstow called 'overweight' by BBC commentator

Ahead of the second Test, the tussle between Australia and England has begun, with a BBC journalist further fuelling the fire by taking a dig at wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.

BBC commentator Jim Maxwell called England's keeper-batsman Bairstow "overweight" following his mistakes in the first Test at Edgbaston. When Ben Stokes and Co decided to continue with Bairstow for the Lord's Test and not call up specialist wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, the move was slammed by many.

Jonny Bairstow's blunders in Edgbaston Test

Even though Bairstow scored 78 in the opening Test, the 33-year-old bungled several chances behind the stumps, including one baffling missed stumping that handed Cameron Green a new life and the Aussie all-rounder went on to score a crucial 38 in Australia's first innings.

England ended up losing the Test by two wickets as Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon put up a match-winning 55-run stand for the ninth wicket as the visitors chased down 281 to go 1-0 up in the five-match series.

In an interview, Maxwell, the Sydney-based pundit, stated that "England let themselves down" in terms of catching in the Edgbaston Test.

"The vital thing in that game was the catching. England let themselves down. They keep doing this every now and then. I don't understand it. They keep picking a bloke who is not a wicketkeeper. I would pick the wicketkeeper first and then pick all the rest of them. You can't have a bloke who is a bit overweight, been out of nick because of his injury, doing the job of a Foakes," Maxwell told Daily Mail.

The BBC commentator went on to add that England need to bring Foakes back to their side as he is "their best wicketkeeper."

"You need a bloke who can turn a half-chance into a wicket. But they are a bit stubborn, the Poms, I'm afraid, and it might cost them at Lord's if they don't lift their game collectively," added Maxwell.

England drop Moeen Ali

Meanwhile, England dropped Moeen Ali and brought in Worcestershire seamer Josh Tongue for the second Test, which is scheduled to go underway on Wednesday in London.

Moeen, a 65-Test veteran, came out of retirement for The Ashes after receiving a phone call from skipper Stokes. Moeen replaced the injured Jack Leach in the English squad for the five-match Test series.

But 36-year-old Moeen picked up just three wickets and conceded 194 runs across Australia's two innings, while he also struggled with a wound on his finger. As his backup, England also called Leicestershire's teenage spinner Rehan Ahmed, who had a fine start to his Test career in Pakistan over the winter.

England have decided to go without a frontline spinner for the second Test at the Home of Cricket, with Joe Root their primary spinner for the game. Having an extra seamer in the side will reduce Stokes' need to bowl with a niggling knee problem.

Tongue, meanwhile, made his Test debut in England's one-off Test against Ireland earlier this month, taking 5 for 66 in the second innings to get himself on the Lord's honours board.

Ollie Robinson receives more criticism

The first half of the Edgbaston Test was ruled by England pacer Ollie Robinson's needling against Cummins and co. Robinson's heated moments in the match included him offering an expletive send-off to the centurion Usman Khawaja. Later on at the press conference, Robinson defended his actions, where he asked, "If you can't handle that, what can you handle?"

After Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting slammed Robinson for his behaviour, the English pacer has received more criticism from another former Australian cricketer, Michael Clarke.

"He needs to be quiet. If England were fully fit you wouldn't even get a game, Ollie. If Jofra Archer was playing, or if [Mark] Wood had been playing and was fully fit, old mate, I don't know what town he plays for, he'd be back playing clubbies," said Clarke.